March 25, 2008

Dad

I was off work this morning to deal with the general pandemonium around the Talton household as we packed my dad off to the hospital

I was informed during Japanese class that my father had entered surgery and was expected to be awake at 1:30. After class I left the school to run by my parents house to check on my grandmother, who is recovering from shoulder surgery. The plan was to meet my sister, have her take me to the hospital and after meeting dad take the van (which my mom is too short to drive) back to my folks house.

At 3:00 I called my mom to find out if he was awake yet.

He was not.

His blood pressure had collapsed shortly after I had talked to her and they were unable to awaken him. I explained the situation to my grandmother and we prepared to leave for the Hospital. I called my mother again and got no response. 3 more calls and no response.

I called my sister to see where she was. She answered that she had not left the hospital. I asked if there had been any change at all and she said no. I told her to hang tough and that my grandmother and I were coming. My sister then informed me that my dad did not want Granny to come to the hospital. I was antsy about bringing her there myself but if there had been no change and he was still not waking up then I wanted to be by his side and she did too. At this point there was a long silence.....then my sister came back with...."Huh?....Oh yeah! I was supposed to call you when he woke up! Sorry."

Little sisters are such pernicious creatures.

After being relieved at the parents house by my uncle I stopped by the hospital just over an hour ago. I got another start when I arrived. The room was beset with nurses an alarm was going off and his wavy line machine had flatlined....this turned out to be due to a defective piece of electronic equipment. My father kept asking "Does this mean I'm dead?"

He is in good spirits and doing as well as can be expected for a man who has just had his hips deboned and then reboned with stainless steel. My brother was there when I arrived. As I type this we have just left him to sleep. He should be home Friday or Saturday and I can start breathing (and sleeping) again now.

Thanks to everyone who left their good wishes. They were greatly appreciated.